Andrew Carton

Week 3, Second Companion Meeting

Read through the following portion and then discuss it with your companions:

There are two different ways to read the word. One way is to read the word but not contact Christ. Too many Christians read the word without ever contacting Christ. This is the wrong way. The right way to read the word is to realize that the word is not mainly for knowledge but for food. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Jeremiah 15:16 says, “Your words were found and I ate them.” We need to eat the word, because the word is food.

Physical food is for our body, so we have to eat it with our body and take it into our body. In the same principle, the word is spiritual food, food for the spirit, so we have to eat it with our spirit and take it into our spirit. We all have to learn how to take the word by our spirit and into our spirit. There is no other way to do this but by praying. We must pray over, pray about, and pray with whatever we read and understand.…

…We cannot expect a brother to be normal and healthy in his Christian life if he does not know how to eat the Lord by dealing with the word. Regardless of how many messages we give people and of how good those messages are, if those who hear them do not know how to eat the Lord, drink the Lord, and feast on the Lord, the messages will not work for them. We may have messages on the cross and about many other things, but we still need to feed on the Lord, drink of Him, and feast on Him. This is of the greatest importance. I hope that we will all practice this day by day, especially in the morning. We need to spend at least ten minutes with the Lord to feast on Him by eating the word.

THE PRACTICAL WAY TO EAT THE WORD

The way to eat the word is first not to read too much. Our time in the word is not to buy something from the supermarket; it is to eat a breakfast. Therefore, we should not take too much, just an adequate portion. Second, we should not try to understand too much. At other times we may need to exercise our mind by reading, but our time for eating the word is not for exercising our mind. We should simply read and understand whatever we can understand. We need not try to understand more than that; this will frustrate us. If we read a few verses or even half of a chapter and do not understand it, we should leave it and continue to read. Perhaps in the following verses we will understand something.

Third, once we understand something, we should ponder over it a little. I do not like to use the word meditate, because that word has been wrongly used. Sometimes to meditate is merely to exercise the mind. In that case, it is better not to meditate. When some Christians meditate too much, they travel throughout the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, back to the Psalms, and then back to Genesis. That does not help. However, when we are inspired with something from the word, we should consider it.

Then, fourth, right away we should pray over what we understand. It is by this kind of prayer that we have a fresh contact not only with the word but also with the Lord Himself through the word. Eventually, the Lord and the word, the word and the Lord, become one to us. In this way, our prayer and reading will be mingled. While we read and consider, we speak something to the Lord, and while we are speaking something to the Lord, we ponder on the word and consider what we understand. This is praying and reading, reading and praying, mingled together.

Matthew 8:1 to 4 says that the Lord Jesus “came down from the mountain” and healed a leper. When we read this portion, we may be inspired that the Lord came down from the mountain. Then we can say, “I praise You, Lord, that You have come down from the mountain. You have come down to the place where I am. O Lord, come down once again today that I may be healed. If You come, my leprosy will go away.” It may not be possible to read and pray in this way for an hour, but to take twenty minutes is possible. Try to do this in the morning and again during the day. I would suggest, especially to the young ones, that you keep a small Bible in your pocket. Throughout the day or during recess or rest you can open it and read two or three verses. Then you will get something, and you can pray over it.

 (Enjoying Christ as the Word and the Spirit through Prayer, Chapter 6, pp. 53-56)

PRACTICING AND DEVELOPING OUR PRAYER
WITH THE WORD TO FEAST ON THE LORD

John 14:1 through 3 says, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe into God, believe also into Me. In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be.” This is a good portion of the word to pray with. To pray over this portion requires a certain amount of practice, development, and consideration. We should not go too fast here. We need to taste this portion by “chewing” it. We may say, “Lord, I thank You that You went to pave the way, prepare a place, and gain the ground that I may be in the Father, that I may be in the place where You are. Lord, I do realize that today I am in the place where You are, yet I need more realization of this. Grant me more and more to experience that I am in the Father, just as You are.” We should learn to apply such a portion by saying, “Lord, today keep me in the place where You are. Now I am going to my office. Keep me in the Father. Grant me the sense that I am with You in the Father all the time.” When we take the word in this way, it is not merely words in black and white letters. Rather, it is living. It is in this way that we exercise our spirit and have a fresh contact with the Lord. In this way it is easy to use our spirit to pray.

As we practice to take the word in this way, we should learn to pray not merely from our knowledge but by exercising our spirit to say something from within to the Lord, to have a real contact with the Lord. We need to exercise the spirit to bring ourselves into the presence of the Lord and speak something in His presence directly, face to face. This is real prayer, not merely a prayer for affairs, business, or burdens, but a prayer to contact and digest the Lord. This is the way to feed on the Lord through the word. At the same time, while we are praying, we are drinking of the Lord.

(Enjoying Christ as the Word and the Spirit through Prayer, Chapter 3, pp. 60-61)

Week 3, First Companion Meeting

Read through the following portion and then discuss it with your companions:

The right way to receive the word is to take it as the breath of life from God (2 Tim. 3:16). This is the life food by which man lives, not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). This is food for the spirit, so we have to exercise our spirit to take it. To receive food for our physical body, we have to exercise our mouth, but to receive spiritual food for our spirit, we have to exercise our spirit. Whenever we come to the word, we need to realize that it is spiritual food. We must exercise our spirit to eat it, not merely to know it. We should forget about knowing and simply eat Christ. This word is the written word of the living Word. It is the expression, the revelation, of the living Word, who is Christ. He is our food, our bread of life, so whenever we come to the Bible, we come to food, not for the body but for the spirit, so we must use our spirit to take it. This is clear to us, but we have to practice to receive the word in this way, not merely to read the Bible for knowledge but to read it for feeding on it.

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Most people who read this verse are tempted to know who was there in the beginning and whether the beginning was thousands, millions, or billions of years ago. This is the way to read the Bible to seek knowledge, to know by exercising the mentality. This is the wrong way. The right way to read the Bible is to exercise our spirit. If we do this, right away we will pray, “O Lord, You are the One who created all things. Everything was created by You, so everything has been initiated by You. Lord, I want You to come into my life to initiate everything.” To take the word in this way is not mere knowledge. Rather, it is nourishment.

Matthew 8:1 through 3 says, “When He came down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. And behold, a leper, coming near, worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if You are willing, You can cleanse me. And stretching out His hand, He touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed! And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” Someone may take this word as knowledge and even criticize, saying that this does not sound like a proper teaching in the Bible. Rather, we should take this word by praising and praying: “Lord, come down again today to the place where I am. I am in the place of failure, in the place of leprosy, and I cannot deliver myself. Lord, if You come to the place where I am, I will be delivered. O Lord, I have been cleansed by You, but I still need You more and more. Come down, Lord, to the place where I am.”

THE WORD BECOMING THE SPIRIT TO US
THROUGH OUR PRAYER

If we read the word in the morning in this way, these few verses will be a very adequate and rich breakfast. They will even be good enough for the whole week. Every day that week we can pray, “O Lord, You have come down from the mountain to the very place where I am. I have been cleansed by You. Lord, I believe, even today, that You are still coming to me. Meet me here.” While we are at work, we can pray, “Lord, there is leprosy here. Come down to the place where I am.” Throughout the entire day we will receive not the word only but the Lord Himself. The word will be transferred into the Spirit by our prayer. The word is black and white outside of us, but after we have prayed, it becomes the living Spirit within us, nourishing, refreshing, strengthening, and delivering us all the day.

We may further illustrate the way of life to read the word with 1 Timothy 1:1. This verse says, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.” A brother may read this verse, praying with praises to the Lord for being our Savior and our hope. Later in the day something disappointing may happen to him, but the more he prays, “Lord, You are my hope,” the more the Spirit within him will strengthen him. In this way the word hope becomes the Spirit to him.

In order to pray to transfer the word into the Spirit, we must learn how to exercise, release, and uplift our spirit. Our prayer over the word also should have some understanding or inspiration in it. If we do not receive something when we start to read, then we should read further. We do not need to force ourselves to get something from every portion we read. The Bible is very rich. It is like a feast on the table. When we come to a feast, we need not force ourselves to enjoy a piece of bone that has no meat. If we were poor, we would have to break the bone to get to the marrow. However, we are not poor; the Bible is very rich. At first we may not get something from what we read, but later when we return to that same passage, we will receive something from it.

We all need to practice this way to receive the word, because we are accustomed to receiving something of knowledge. After a certain period of practice, however, we will be more accustomed to receiving something of life. Even if it is easy to get something merely of knowledge from a certain portion of the word, we would not do it. If we understand something from a portion of the word, we should not pay attention to the mere knowledge. Instead, we should receive something of life. Again I say, we need not force ourselves to get something from every portion we read. If we come to a “bone,” we can forget about it for now and go on to a tender, meaty portion to get something of life. To come to the word to feast on the Lord is like coming to the dining table. We must learn to find something that we can eat.

It is too easy to get something of knowledge, but it is not as easy to get something of life. We are familiar with the bones, but we do not know the meat as well. We all must learn this proper way to read the word. This will help us to enjoy the Lord, to experience Him, and to live by Him. The Lord Jesus told us, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (John 6:57). The proper reading of the word helps us to realize the Lord, enjoy Him, experience Him, and live by Him, and it also helps us to exercise our spirit, because in this way we pray much. Then our spirit is strengthened, uplifted, exercised, and made alive. When we come to the meetings, it will be easy to pray, because our spirit has been exercised, strengthened, and uplifted. In addition, we will have some content to pray. We will have something stored within our spirit, and our spirit will be living, because day by day we have been feeding on Christ. This is the proper, normal way for us to enjoy the Lord.

(Enjoying Christ as the Word and the Spirit through Prayer, Chapter 3, pp. 32-35)